The Pacific Highway upgrade traverses diverse landscapes from Hexham to the Queensland border and over the last nearly 20 years has developed and implemented a wide range of design and management measures to mitigate and offset impacts to native wildlife.

Environmental Management plans

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Echidna - 2014

Wildlife

Find out more about how we mitigate and offset impacts to native wildlife

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koala in tree

Koalas

We take managing highway impacts to this species very seriously.

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frog

Threatened species

We've developed and implemented a range of measures to minimise the impacts to a wide range of threatened species

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Did you know?

Oxleyan pygmy perch

The oxleyan pygmy perch live in small and patchily distributed populations. In NSW, the pygmy perch appear restricted to a 114 kilometre stretch of sandy coastal lowlands between Rileys Hill, north of Evans Head, and Corindi.

This small fish is particularly sensitive to fluctuations in pH levels, so controlling water run-off from the working site into the nearby creeks is critically important.

Success in protecting the OPP and its habitat on the Devils Pulpit upgrade provides a template for ongoing management of this threatened species on the Woolgoolga to Ballina project.

A catch-net system developed works by retaining any spills and alkaline run-off from concrete works on bridges and created an irrigation system and dams to redirect discharge water away from the floodplain. This will allow the upgrade of the highway without harming the habitat of the oxleyan pygmy perch.

Giant barred frog

Roads and Maritime has worked with the Department of Environment Climate Change and Water (DECCW) to identify a giant barred frog management strategy.

Key features of the management strategy include:

  • Handling of the frog is in accordance with the DECCW hygiene protocol for control of diseases in frogs
  • Relocating Giant barred frogs and tadpoles found during farm dam dewatering downstream of the site
  • Installing frog fencing at least 50 metres either side of the watercourse where forest vegetation exists and at the project boundary near dams.

Pink underwing moth

The pink underwing moth lives in Lowland Subtropical Rainforest.  The moth is found in small populations in five locations across NSW. One of these populations is north of Wardell.